New Releases: Aug 10

The Help (Disney, 2,511 Theaters, 137 Minutes, Rated PG-13): if the amount of people I see on my travels reading the book this film was based on is an accurate tool to measure buzz for a movie, then this film has the makings of a majorly big hit. However, as someone who not read the book and who has no interest in it, I don’t know what to expect from this film.

Oh, I know what the plot will be. A young girl named Skeeter who wants to be a writer discovers a story right in her Southern hometown–the way the white matronly ladies treat their African-American help. The story is good enough to get her a book deal, but when the ladies in town see through her thinly veiled characters to see that Skeeter is talking about them, all heck breaks loose.

However, I’ve seen ads for the film that make it look like a thoughtful look at the civil rights struggles in the 60s, and I’ve seen ads where it looks like a wacky class comedy. When I see two diametrically opposed ad campaigns such as that, it makes me think hucksterism is involved. Not that it matters, because all the fans of the book I’ve spoken to can’t wait to see the film. But as an outsider, I am wary

William is cursed with the shared love of comic books and of films. Luckily, this is a great time for him to be alive. His writing has been featured on Broken Frontier.com, PopMatters.com and in Comics Foundry magazine.